Sexy Inc. Our Children Under the Influence

This documentary is reputed for inciting strong reactions from youth educators, inspiring them to help counter the phenomenon of sexualization. Used as a reference tool, the film allows professionals to deepen their understanding of early sexualization and build on their own intervention practices.

A guide for educators is also available to encourage discussion, reflective sharing, and identify courses of action to counter the phenomenon.

Youth and Sexualization:
Innovative Approaches to Intervention

This kit was designed to provide facilitators who work in youth education, health and social services, and community organizations a variety of educational tools on the theme of sexualization and its impact on young people. The activities contained in this kit address elements such as beauty and body image, stereotypes, as well as love, family and friendship relationships.

10 Books about Women Role
Models to Inspire Young Minds

This list of illustrated books for 3 to 16 year olds is created to instill the idea in both girls and boys that women have control of their destinies and have accomplished great things throughout history. The recommended books highlight women role models who have changed the course of history like Marie Curie, the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize in 1903 and 1911, and Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan woman who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. For the most part, these women have had to make their mark in male dominated fields like Elinor Smith, who became a pilot at the age of 16, and Elizabeth Blackwell, who became a doctor in the 1930s. These magnificently illustrated books provide an entertaining look at the talents and contributions of exceptional women such as Jane Goodall, Frida Kahlo, Malala Yousafzai, Anne Frank and Ella Fitzgerald, among others.

It’s My Decision : Mandalas and Wellness

Choose Your Way

French, English / 2012 / Financial support of Ministère de la Sécurité publique

Prix Égalité 2013, Violence Prevention category

Designed from a strength-based approach, the program encourages girls to discover their passions and strengths while asserting their unique character. Choose Your Wayaims to build self-esteem and leadership skills in girls by promoting self-awareness, self-expression, critical thinking, solidarity and action. The subject of sexual exploitation and street gangs is broached, by way of the film Street Stories, near the end of the program.

Street Stories: Girls, Gangs and Realities

French, English /2012/ Financial support of Ministère de la Sécurité publique with the collaboration of Ramz Média

An educational film that serves as a lever to prevent the recruitment of young women aged 12 and over for the purpose of sexual exploitation by street gangs. Its main objective is to induce reflection and discussion among young people and raise awareness of the realities of street gangs and sexual exploitation.

May be used to supplement the Choose Your Way guides.

Content: The documentary Street Stories: Girls, Gangs and Realities, including a discussion guide and a CD ROM with supplementary information.Temporarily unavailable.

Do you NO the limit? – 360° of Consent

Sexual consent is a topic with many nuances and subtleties and deserves to be demystified in order to promote healthy relationships among youth. Through the use of 360° glasses, the individual is teleported into an alternate world, where they enter the shoes of a young girl who is experiencing a situation where sexual consent is brought into question. Film-maker Emanuel St. Pierre, recipient of the 2013 prize L’égalité à l’œuvre, had the idea to develop the project using virtual reality technology, permitting users to realistically live and feel the experience, thus provoking a deeper understanding of the issue. Actors Sandrine Poirier-Allard and Olivier Koomsatira play the main characters, two youth that meet to work on a group project for school, in a situation with an unexpected turn of events. The messages to convey are that one has to always make sure that both partners want the same things, one does not need a reason to say no, and can do so at any point in time.

Until March 2017, the project will tour schools and several public events and also offer group discussions that permit youth to exchange views on consent.

Equals Cinema Forum – Facilitation Guide

Equals Cinema Forum Facilitation Guide, is created for people working with boys and girls, 16 to 22 years old, in the education and community sectors. This facilitation tool approaches the issue of gender equality in an entertaining way with the help of a short film featuring conflict situations about gender equality. The participants will be engaged to identify such situations in a dynamic manner.

Password Toolkit:
Program to Facilitate the Transition
to High School and
Prevent Gender-based violence

The Toolkit supports professionals to put in place reflective and dynamic workshops for youth during their transition to high school. The program allows youth to strengthen their social skills, supporting them in their transition to high school and equipping them in preventing and facing gender-based violence.

Content: An Activity Guide with 48 activities and icebreakers, 8 evaluation tools, A Section for Parents, a Peer Mentoring Guide, 90 resources on the topics surrounding the transition to high school and gender-based violence, a CD-ROM version of the guide in English and French.
For all material orders, contact commande.leadership@ydesfemmesmtl.org

And… Action!

And…Action is a program developed by YWCA Montreal’s Youth Services to help youth aged 12 to 18 tackle issues related to teen healthy relationships such as identity, gender, sexuality, consent, mental health, racism, sexism, how the media influences us, and much more. From 2013 to 2017, more than 140 students in ten different high schools across Montreal participated in the program through various interactive media projects, group activities and discussions.